Histories of the present: Johnson lies but he doesn’t resign he has to be sacked
Ministers are resigning again but will Johnson take the hint? Recent history suggests not.
One idea behind Keir Starmer’s statement that he will resign if Durham police find he broke the law over what is known as Beergate, seems to be that he is a man of ‘honour and integrity’ and Johnson should be held to the same standard. Leaving aside the point that it would be surprising indeed if Durham police had much honour or integrity themselves, Johnson’s career record suggests it won’t work.
Boris Johnson is not someone given to resigning. It no doubt goes back to his Eton days when it was noted that he felt that rules that applied to everyone else did not apply to him.
This clearly applies to his current job as Prime Minister. Pressed by Keir Starmer and others to resign after Sue Gray’s initial report into Downing St’s numerous lockdown parties, Johnson evaded the issue, blamed others and claimed he was just the person to sort matters out. A brief history of Johnson underlines that he has only ever resigned once and that was because it suited his personal ambition.
Johnson has departed from several journalistic jobs at the Times and the Spectator but he has also been sacked as a politician.
In 2004 when Michael Howard was leader of the Opposition, Johnson was Shadow Arts Minister and Tory Vice-Chair. He had an affair with Petronella Wyatt and she became pregnant. She decided to have an abortion and Johnson tried to keep the matter out of the public domain.
However news of it started to appear in the tabloid press. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to lie his way out of it. Howard decided that Johnson would have to go not over the affair or the abortion but because he had lied about it. He instructed his spokesman Guy Black to speak to Johnson and get him to resign. Johnson refused. After watching a Liverpool football match Howard then spoke directly to Johnson at 6.30pm and sacked him. It was November 13th 2004.
Johnson’s view was that only by being sacked would get sympathy, a resignation would not do it.
There is an exception that belongs in a different category. In July 2018 he resigned as Foreign Secretary in Theresa May’s Government. He had done nothing wrong on this occasion (in fact he had done very little in the role at all). The issue was that he wanted a harder Brexit than May. His resignation was part of the strategy to get elected as Tory leader in get the harder Brexit he wanted.
Many might feel that what he actually wanted was not a particular kind of Brexit but the position of PM which he thought his 2 11 would get him- correctly. As ever it was all about Johnson’s personal fortunes.
Even if Starmer does resign one doubts Johnson will take the hint
Source Sonia Purnell, Just Boris
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